Subject: Re: [PATCH 6/9] upload-pack: disallow object-info capability by default

From: Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2024 09:34:30 +0100

On Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 05:38:58PM -0500, Jeff King wrote:
> From: Taylor Blau <[email-masked]>
> 
> We added an "object-info" capability to the v2 upload-pack protocol in
> a2ba162cda (object-info: support for retrieving object info,
> 2021-04-20). In the almost 3 years since, we have not added any
> client-side support, and it does not appear to exist in other
> implementations either (JGit understands the verb on the server side,
> but not on the client side).
> 
> Since this largely unused code is accessible over the network by
> default, it increases the attack surface of upload-pack. I don't know of
> any particularly severe problem, but one issue is that because of the
> request/response nature of the v2 protocol, it will happily read an
> unbounded number of packets, adding each one to a string list (without
> regard to whether they are objects we know about, duplicates, etc).
> 
> This may be something we want to improve in the long run, but in the
> short term it makes sense to disable the feature entirely. We'll add a
> config option as an escape hatch for anybody who wants to develop the
> feature further.
> 
> A more gentle option would be to add the config option to let people
> disable it manually, but leave it enabled by default. But given that
> there's no client side support, that seems like the wrong balance with
> security.
> 
> Disabling by default will slow adoption a bit once client-side support
> does become available (there were some patches[1] in 2022, but nothing
> got merged and there's been nothing since). But clients have to deal
> with older servers that do not understand the option anyway (and the
> capability system handles that), so it will just be a matter of servers
> flipping their config at that point (and hopefully once any unbounded
> allocations have been addressed).
> 
> [jk: this is a patch that GitHub has been running for several years, but
>      rebased forward and with a new commit message for upstream]
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email-masked]/
> 
> Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <[email-masked]>
> Signed-off-by: Jeff King <[email-masked]>
> ---
>  Documentation/config/transfer.txt |  4 ++++
>  serve.c                           | 14 +++++++++++++-
>  t/t5555-http-smart-common.sh      |  1 -
>  t/t5701-git-serve.sh              | 24 +++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  4 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/config/transfer.txt b/Documentation/config/transfer.txt
> index a9cbdb88a1..f1ce50f4a6 100644
> --- a/Documentation/config/transfer.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/config/transfer.txt
> @@ -121,3 +121,7 @@ transfer.bundleURI::
>  	information from the remote server (if advertised) and download
>  	bundles before continuing the clone through the Git protocol.
>  	Defaults to `false`.
> +
> +transfer.advertiseObjectInfo::
> +	When `true`, the `object-info` capability is advertised by
> +	servers. Defaults to false.
> diff --git a/serve.c b/serve.c
> index a1d71134d4..aa651b73e9 100644
> --- a/serve.c
> +++ b/serve.c
> @@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
>  #include "trace2.h"
>  
>  static int advertise_sid = -1;
> +static int advertise_object_info = -1;
>  static int client_hash_algo = GIT_HASH_SHA1;
>  
>  static int always_advertise(struct repository *r UNUSED,
> @@ -67,6 +68,17 @@ static void session_id_receive(struct repository *r UNUSED,
>  	trace2_data_string("transfer", NULL, "client-sid", client_sid);
>  }
>  
> +static int object_info_advertise(struct repository *r, struct strbuf *value UNUSED)
> +{
> +	if (advertise_object_info == -1 &&
> +	    repo_config_get_bool(r, "transfer.advertiseobjectinfo",
> +				 &advertise_object_info)) {
> +		/* disabled by default */
> +		advertise_object_info = 0;
> +	}
> +	return advertise_object_info;
> +}
> +
>  struct protocol_capability {
>  	/*
>  	 * The name of the capability.  The server uses this name when
> @@ -135,7 +147,7 @@ static struct protocol_capability capabilities[] = {
>  	},
>  	{
>  		.name = "object-info",
> -		.advertise = always_advertise,
> +		.advertise = object_info_advertise,
>  		.command = cap_object_info,
>  	},
>  	{
> diff --git a/t/t5555-http-smart-common.sh b/t/t5555-http-smart-common.sh
> index b1cfe8b7db..3dcb3340a3 100755
> --- a/t/t5555-http-smart-common.sh
> +++ b/t/t5555-http-smart-common.sh
> @@ -131,7 +131,6 @@ test_expect_success 'git upload-pack --advertise-refs: v2' '
>  	fetch=shallow wait-for-done
>  	server-option
>  	object-format=$(test_oid algo)
> -	object-info
>  	0000
>  	EOF
>  
> diff --git a/t/t5701-git-serve.sh b/t/t5701-git-serve.sh
> index 3591bc2417..c48830de8f 100755
> --- a/t/t5701-git-serve.sh
> +++ b/t/t5701-git-serve.sh
> @@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ test_expect_success 'test capability advertisement' '
>  	fetch=shallow wait-for-done
>  	server-option
>  	object-format=$(test_oid algo)
> -	object-info
>  	EOF
>  	cat >expect.trailer <<-EOF &&
>  	0000
> @@ -323,6 +322,8 @@ test_expect_success 'unexpected lines are not allowed in fetch request' '
>  # Test the basics of object-info
>  #
>  test_expect_success 'basics of object-info' '
> +	test_config transfer.advertiseObjectInfo true &&
> +
>  	test-tool pkt-line pack >in <<-EOF &&
>  	command=object-info
>  	object-format=$(test_oid algo)
> @@ -380,4 +381,25 @@ test_expect_success 'basics of bundle-uri: dies if not enabled' '
>  	test_must_be_empty out
>  '
>  
> +test_expect_success 'object-info missing from capabilities when disabled' '
> +	test_config transfer.advertiseObjectInfo false &&
> +
> +	GIT_TEST_SIDEBAND_ALL=0 test-tool serve-v2 \
> +		--advertise-capabilities >out &&
> +	test-tool pkt-line unpack <out >actual &&
> +
> +	! grep object.info actual
> +'

Is it intentional that you grep for "object.info" instead of
"object-info"?

Patrick

> +test_expect_success 'object-info commands rejected when disabled' '
> +	test_config transfer.advertiseObjectInfo false &&
> +
> +	test-tool pkt-line pack >in <<-EOF &&
> +	command=object-info
> +	EOF
> +
> +	test_must_fail test-tool serve-v2 --stateless-rpc <in 2>err &&
> +	grep invalid.command err
> +'
> +
>  test_done
> -- 
> 2.44.0.rc2.424.gbdbf4d014b
> 
>